Official Cowboys Station

According to Richie Whitt of the Dallas Observer, 105.3 The Fan is negotiating with the Cowboys to steal away the rights of being the official station of the Dallas Cowboys away from the Ticket. There are several facets to this story, but since we are the UnTicket, we will focus on what it means to us, the P1, if they lost this label.

To me, it means nothing. Actually, it might mean we get a little bit of the old Ticket back.

Has anything really changed since they became the Official Station of the Cowboys? They always had a pre-game. They always had a post-game. They always had the Ranch Report. They were always quick to report any breaking Cowboys news. They have always had special guests and weekly guests. Would this hurt the Ticket in any way? I don’t see how it could.

Have you noticed a change in the way the Ticket goes about its business since the change? Nobody on the Ticket holds back their HSOs about the Cowboys, so why should they worry? Is it the money? The notariety?

Has anyone on here given The Fan a listen? Ben and Skin are themselves, but listening to Kevin Scott try to overtalk sports is kind of a beating. Why don’t these other stations get it? If you talk sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports over and over again, people lose interest. If you mix in some other stuff, the formula starts to draw in listeners. There is nothing worse than listening to the generic sports talk that Sporting News Radio throws up every day, and that seems to be where The Fan wants to go.

Overall, I can’t imagine it hurting The Ticket to lose the “officiality” of being the Cowboys’ Station. It might even help.

7 COMMENTS

Let me turn the argument around – if you haven’t noticed any difference since they became the Official Home, what makes you think it will “help” by reverting back to outsider status?

(My opinion – they’ve become much more corporate since getting in bed with Jerry. Maybe they’ll lighten up a bit when they aren’t part of it. I still think that somewhere, somehow, Greggo is still at the Ticket — albeit not on the Hardline — if they weren’t the Official Home.)

I think that is a great point. I can’t say that I have heard a noticeable change per se, but it just feels different sometimes. Hard to explain, I know, but you probably know what I am talking about. You can hear how frustrated they are when they HAVE to carry the 3:00 Wade press conference, for example. I bet most of the time they wouldn’t carry that, because it is mindless drivel. I think your statement about them being less corporate is dead on. You may have even said my point better. Their opinions haven’t changed, but it hasn’t been as loose as it has been in the past.

I can think of one thing worse than Kevin Scott’s overtalkerry. That would be Ben and Skin. Their fill-ins on the ticket were only rivaled by John Raddigan’s in my mind for an immediate tune-out. They have a unique talent for making even the most basic segments unlistinable with degenerative, disorganized, disjointed conversation that usually ends with them giggling to themselves about some kind of inside joke that probably wouldn’t be funny even if I knew what it was about. If that’s not enough radio-gold, they you get their all-star guests of their former high school friends or obscure local dallas-ites who happen to have gotten their name in pac man jones’ blackberry (KB the cowboy homer comes to mind). Oh. And they just aren’t funny. (see ‘fire ant pants) bit immediately before the Rick Carlysle interview in their final go-round on the ticket before mercifully being moved to FM.

They seem like nice guys, but honestly – they are awful on the air. It’s like a really really bad ticket impersenation gone horribly awry….and done by high schoolers.

Right on…lose the Cowboys. I did not notice any change in the Ticket’s opinions on them, just the beating of press conferences. Glad to get rid of ‘em. The Fan would make more business sense for the Cowboys, being that it’s FM and has a much stronger signal.

As for The Fan’s on-air stuff, I don’t think they should try and copy the Ticket. The Ticket struck gold with their on-air personalities, and trying to copy that wouldn’t work. They should just talk sports so that those dudes out there who don’t like the non-sports stuff can tune in and listen to them talk about the local teams to death.

I thought it was cool that the Ticket was the official Cowboys station for awhile, but like everyone above says…it didn’t really make much of a difference at all. Plus, with the advent of Tivo, DVR, etc, does anyone actually watch the games live anymore with the sound turned down and the radio cranked? Few, if any. So it really doesn’t matter in my opinion.

If The Fan became the Offical Cowboys Station, all it’d mean for me would be that’s where my radio would be tuned during Cowboy games. I don’t listen to the Ticket because they have that title. And every time I tune in and hear Ben and Skin, I remember why I would always punch out when they filled in for the Hard Line.

What WOULD be funny, IMO, would be if ESPN wrested the banner from the Ticket. It’d be HILARIOUS to see Hansen have to pick up his toys and move, again.